seven.

power, but the ark was the means provided by God for this purpose; and if He wrought thus far by human instrumentality, in accordance with the usual law of the Divine working on earth, to help out the human means employed by repeated acts of omnipotence would have been to proclaim it as insufficient. It does not follow from this that no special providence watched over and guided the ark; such providence is often exercised now, but it works through and in accordance with the ordinary laws by which God governs the world.

VII.

(1) Come thou.-The task of building the ark is over, and after a week, to be spent in collecting animals and birds, Noah is to take up his abode in it. Many commentators suppose that 120 years were spent in the work; but this view arises from an untenable interpretation of chap. vi. 3, which really fixes the future duration of human life.

(2) Of every clean beast-Heb., of all clean cattlethou shalt take to thee by sevens-Heb., seven seven. This probably does not mean seven pairs of each, though many commentators so interpret it, but seven of each kind. If, however, seven pairs be the right interpretation, but few species could have been included, as to attend properly to so large a number of animals would have been beyond the power of Noah and his sons. But which were the clean beasts? There can be no reference here to the Levitical law, which had respect to human food; nor to animals tamed and untamed, as all alike are called cattle; but probably the clean cattle were such as from the days of Adam and Abel had been offered in sacrifice. Thus provision was made for Noah's sacrifice on his egress from the ark, and also for his possession of a small herd of such animals as would be most useful to him amid the desolation which must have existed for a long time after the flood. The clean beasts would therefore be oxen, sheep, goats; the unclean, camels, horses, asses, and such other animals as stood in some relation to man. Of birds, the dove would especially be clean.

It has been pointed out that these more full and specific orders are given in the name of Jehovah, whereas most of the narrative of the flood is Elohistic, and hence it has been assumed that some Jehovist narrator added to and completed the earlier narrative. These additions would be chap. vii. 1-6, the last

with Noah in the Ark.

(5) And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him. (6) And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. (7) And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. (8) Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, (9) there went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah. (10) And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.

(11) In the six hundredth year of Noah's

clause of verse 16, Noah's sacrifice in chap. viii. 20—22, and the cursing of Canaan in chap. ix. 18-27. Now, it is remarkable that the sacrifice is as integral a portion of the Chaldean Genesis as the sending forth of the birds (Chaldean Genesis, p. 286), and is thus indubitably older than the time of Moses. Still, there is nothing improbable in Moses having two records of the flood before him, and while the division of Genesis into Elohistic and Jehovistic portions usually breaks down, there is a prima facie appearance of the combination of two narratives in the present history, or, at least, in this one section (chap. vii. 1-6).

(4) Forty days.-Henceforward forty became the sacred number of trial and patience, and, besides the obvious places in the Old Testament, it was the duration both of our Lord's fast in the wilderness and of His sojourn on earth after the Resurrection.

Every living substance. The word "living" is found neither in the Hebrew nor in the ancient versions, and limits the sense unnecessarily. The word is rare, being found only thrice, namely, here, in verse 23, and in Deut. xi. 6. It means whatever stands erect. Thus God" destroys"-Heb., blots out (see on chap. vi. 7)-not man and beast only, but the whole existent state of things-" from the face of the earth "-Heb.,_ the adâmah, the cultivated and inhabited ground. This section is much more limited in the extent which it gives to the flood, not including reptiles, or rather, small animals, among those saved in the ark, and confining the overflow of the waters to the inhabited region.

(6) Noah was six hundred years old.-It follows that Shem was about one hundred years of age (comp. chap. v. 32), and his two brothers younger; but all were married, though apparently without children. (Comp. chap. xi. 10.)

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(8) Beasts.-Heb., of the clean cattle and of the cattle that was not clean. In the Chaldean Genesis, Xisuthrus takes also wild animals, seeds of all kinds of plants, gold and silver, male and female slaves, the sons of the best," and the "sons of the people" (pp. 280-283). There it is a whole tribe, with their chief, who are saved-here one family only.

(10) After seven days.-Said, in Jewish tradition, to have been the seven days of mourning for Methuselah, who died in the year of the flood.

(11) In the second month.-That is, of the civil year, which commenced in Tisri, at the autumnal

life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. (12) And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. (13) In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; (14) they, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every 2 sort. (15) And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh,

equinox. The flood thus began towards the end of October, and lasted till the spring. The ecclesiastical year began in Abib, or April; but it was instituted in remembrance of the deliverance from Egypt (Exod. xii. 2, xxiii. 15), and can have no place here. The year was evidently the lunar year of 360 days, for the waters prevail for 150 days (chap. vii. 24), and then abate for 150 days (chap. viii. 3). Now, as the end of the first period of 150 days is described in chap. viii. 4 as the seventeenth day of the seventh month, whereas the flood began on the seventeenth of the second month, it is plain that the 150 days form five months of thirty days each. But see farther proof on chap. viii. 14.

The fountains of the great deep broken up (Heb., cloven), and the windows (lattices) of heaven were opened. This is usually taken by commentators as a description of extraordinary torrents of rain, related in language in accordance with the popular ideas of the time and of the narrator himself. The rains poured down as though the flood-gates which usually shut in the upper waters were thrown open, while from the abysses of the earth the subterranean ocean burst its way upwards. But the words at least suggest the idea of a great cosmic catastrophe, by which some vast body of water was set loose. Without some such natural convulsion it is very difficult to understand how the ark, a vessel incapable of sailing, could have gone against the current up to the water-shed of Ararat. As the annual evaporation of the earth is also a comparatively fixed quantity, the concentrated downpour of it for forty days and nights would scarcely have produced a flood so vast as the deluge of Noah evidently was. It is thus probable that there was, besides the rains, some vast displacement of water which helped in producing these terrific effects.

We shall have occasion subsequently to notice the exactness of the dates (chap. viii. 14). Tradition might for a short time hand them down correctly, but they must soon have been committed to writing, or confusion would inevitably have crept in.

(13) In the selfsame day.-Heb., in the bone of this day. (See Note on chap. ii. 23.)

(14) Every beast.-Heb., every living thing (as in chap. viii. 1), but probably we are to supply" of the field," and thus it would mean the wild animals.

The cattle.-Behêmáh. (See Note on chap. i. 24.)

The Great Flood.

wherein is the breath of life. (16) And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.

(17) And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. (18) And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. (19) And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. (20) Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

Creeping thing.-Not specially reptiles, but all small animals (see ibid.). The last clause literally is, every fowl after its kind, every bird, every wing; whence some understand it as meaning three kinds of winged beings: birds generally, next singing-birds, and lastly, bats, insects, and other such creatures. It more probably means "birds of all sorts."

(16) The Lord (Jehovah) shut him in.-The assigning to Jehovah of this act of personal care for Noah is very remarkable. In the Chaldean Genesis (p. 283), the Deity commands Xisuthrus to shut himself in.

(17-19) The waters increased. . -The swell. ing of the flood is told with great power in these verses, but every stage and detail has reference to the ark, as if the author of the narrative was one of those on board. First, the "waters increased," and raised up the ark till it floated. Next, "they became strong and increased exceedingly "-the word rendered "prevailed" really signifying the setting in of mighty currents (see on chap. viii. 1), as the waters sought the lower ground— and at this stage the ark began to move. Finally, they "became strong exceedingly, exceedingly," rushing along with ever-increasing force, and carrying the ark high above every hill in its course. Of these it is saidAll the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.-Interpreting this by the English Version, many regard it as a proof of the deluge having been universal. But omitting the well-known fact that in the Bible the word "all" means much less than with us, we must also remember that the Hebrew language has a very small vocabulary, and "the whole heaven" means simply the whole sky. We with our composite language borrow a word for it from the Greek, and say "the whole horizon," that is, the whole heaven, bounded by the line of the spectator's vision. So then here. Far and wide, in every direction, to the utmost reach of the beholder's gaze, no mountain was in sight. All was a surging waste of flood. But there is no idea here of the mountains of Auvergne, with the ashes of old-world volcanoes still reposing upon their craters, extinct from a time probably long anterior to the creation even of man. The mountains were those of the Noachian world, as limited as the Roman world of Luke ii. 1, or even more so.

(20) Fifteen cubits upward.-This apparently was the draught of the ark, computed after it had settled

(21) a And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth,

Cessation of the Rain.

vailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.

CHAPTER VIII.- (1) And God re

Pet. 2. 5.

and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; (2) the fountains also of the deep and the

in the region of Ararat. Fifteen cubits would be about twenty-two feet, and as the ark floated onward without interruption until it finally grounded, there must have been this depth of water even on the highest summit in its course. Continuous rains for forty days and nights would scarcely produce so vast a mass of water, unless we suppose that the adámâh was some low-lying spot of ground whither the waters from many regions flowed together; but this is negatived by the ark having travelled into Armenia. In England the whole average mean rainfall in a year is not more than twenty-eight or thirty inches in depth. If we suppose this amount to have fallen in every twenty-four hours, the total quantity would be about 100 feet. Such a rain would denude the mountains of all soil, uproot all trees, sweep away all buildings, dig out new courses for the rivers, completely alter the whole surface of the ground, and cover the lower lands with débris. Wherever there was any obstacle in their way, the waters would deepen in volume, and quickly burst a passage through it. But as they would be seeking the lower grounds during the whole forty days, it is difficult to understand how they could cover any of the heights to the depth of twentytwo feet, unless there were some cosmic convulsion (see Note on verse 11), by which the waters from the equator were carried towards the poles, and in this way there would be no difficulty in the ark being carried against the current of the Tigris and Euphrates up to the high lands of Armenia.

(23) Every living substance.-Every thing that stood erect. (See Note on verse 4.)

Upon the face of the ground.-The adâmâh, the portion subdued to his use by the adam, man.

(24) Prevailed.-Heb., were strong, as in verse 18. The rains lasted forty days; for one hundred and ten more days they still bore up the ark, and then it grounded. But though still mighty, they had by this time "abated" (see chap. viii. 3), inasmuch as, instead of covering the hills to the depth of nearly four fathoms, the ark now had touched dry land. Again, then, the narrative seems to give the personal experiences of some one in the ark.

VIII.

(1) God.-Elohim. On the Jehovistic theory, one would have expected Jehovah here. (See Excursus.) Every living thing.-See Note on chap. vii. 14. The waters asswaged.-Heb., became still. It is plain from this that the "strength" of the waters, described in chap. vii. 24, has reference to the violent

the rain from heaven was restrained; (3) and the waters returned from off the earth continually and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. (4) And the ark rested in

currents, which still existed up to the end of the one hundred and fiftieth day, after which they ceased.

A wind (comp. the creative wind in chap. i. 2) began to blow as soon as the rains ceased, or even before, as must necessarily have been the case with so vast a disturbance of the atmosphere; but its special purpose of assuaging the waters only began when the downpour was over. This wind would affect the course of the ark, but scarcely so strongly as the currents of the water.

(3) The waters returned from off the earth. -This backward motion of the waters also seems to indicate that a vast wave from the sea had swept over the land, in addition to the forty days of rain.

Were abated.-Heb., decreased. Those in the ark would notice the changing current, and would know, by their being aground, that the flood was diminishing. But it was not till the first day of the tenth month that the tops of the mountains were seen. This slow abatement of the waters and their stillness, described in verse 1, makes it probable that the ark had grounded on some land-locked spot.

(4) The seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month.-As the months had each thirty days (see Note on verse 14), this makes exactly 150 days (see chap. vii. 11). The seventh civil month would be Abib; and the Speaker's Commentary notices the following remarkable coincidences:-" On the 17th day of Abib the ark rested on Mount Ararat; on the 17th day of Abib the Israelites passed over the Red Sea; on the 17th day of Abib, Christ, our Lord, rose again from the dead."

Ararat.-If in chap. xi. 2 the Authorised Version is right in saying that the descendants of Noah travelled "from the east" to Shinar, this could not be the Ararat of Armenia. Moreover, we are told that the word in Assyrian means "highland," and thus may signify any hilly country. In the Chaldean Genesis the ark rests upon Nizir, a region to the east of Assyria, the highest peak of which, now named Elwend, is called in the cuneiform texts "the mountain of the world" (Chaldean Genesis, p. 307). The rendering, however, "from the east," is by no means certain, and translate many eastward," and even the Authorised Version renders the word east, that is, eastward, in chap. xiii. 11. In 2 Kings xix. 37 "Ararat" is translated Armenia; but it is more correctly described in Jer. li. 27 as a country near Minni, that is, near Armenia. There are in this region two mountains of great altitude, the AghriDagh and the Kara-Dagh, the highest of which is

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(6) And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: (7) and he sent forth a raven, which went forth 2to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. (8) Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; (9) but the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the

2

sent out from the Ark.

waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him (10) And he stayed yet de into the ark. and

in

and

re

17,260 feet above the sea-level; and naturally legend chooses this as the place where the ark settled. But the inspired narrative says that it rested" upon the mountains of Ararat," upon some chain of hills there, and seventy-three days afterwards Noah found himself surrounded by an amphitheatre of mountains, the word used in verse 5 being emphatic, and signifying "the tops of the mountains became distinctly visible," and not that they had just begun to emerge. For, doubtless, after so vast a flood, mists and vapours would for a long time prevail, and shut out the surrounding world from Noah's view.

The Targum of Onkelos and the Syriac translate "on the mountains of Carduchia." This range, which separates Armenia from Kurdistan, is regarded by many authorities as the hills really meant, because, as they are nearer the place whence the ark started, the difficulty regarding the course taken by it is not so insuperable.

(5) Seen.-See Note on verse 4.

(6) Noah opened the window.-Not the zohar of chap. vi. 16, but an aperture. He had waited forty days after seeing the heights around him rising clearly into the air, and then, impatient of the slow subsidence of the waters, Noah at last sent forth a raven to bring him some news of the state of the earth. This bird was chosen as one strong of flight, and also, perhaps, because anciently regarded as prophetic of the weather; besides this, it is easily tamed, and as Noah retained its mate he had security for its return. And so it seems to have done, for it is described as going "forth to and fro." Each night it returned to the ark, and probably to its old perch near the female. The Chaldean Genesis agrees with many commentators and the ancient versions in supposing that the raven did not return, finding abundant food in the floating dead bodies (Chaldean Genesis, p. 286); but this is contrary to the Hebrew. The versions must have had a negative in their copies, and have read, "which went forth, going, and not returning." The present Hebrew text is, however, consistent with itself; for it adds, "until the waters," &c. This must mean that as soon as the earth was dry this going to and fro ceased.

(8, 9) He sent forth a dove . . .-From the nature of its food, the raven had not brought back to Noah any special information; but as the dove feeds on vegetable

(13) And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth and Noah removed the covering of the ark,

products, he hopes that he shall learn by her means what is the state of "the ground," the low-lying adámáh. But as this species of bird does not fly far from its home, except when assembled in vast numbers, it quickly returned, finding water all around. This proves that the ark had not settled upon a lofty eminence; for as it had been already aground 120 days, and as within another fortnight the waters had "abated from off the earth," it could only have been in some valley or plain among the mountains of Ararat that the waters were thus 66 on the face of the whole earth," the larger word, yet which certainly does not mean here the whole world, but only a very small region in the immediate neighbourhood of the ark. For, supposing that the raven was sent out one week before the dove, forty-seven days (see verse 6) would have elapsed since Noah beheld the glorious panorama of mountain heights all around, and seven days afterwards the dove brought him a freshplucked olive-leaf. Yet, literally, the words are, for waters were upon the face of the whole earth. Plainly these large terms in the language of the Bible are to be limited in their interpretation by the general tenor of its narratives. For a similar conclusive instance, comp. Exod. ix. 6 with ibid. 19, 20.

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(10-12) Again he sent forth the dove . When, after another week's delay, Noah again sent forth the dove, it remained away until the time of evening," finding both food and ground on which it could alight near the ark. It was not till nightfall that it came home, bringing to him "an olive leaf pluckt off," or, possibly, a fresh olive-leaf. The olive-tree, which grows abundantly in Armenia, is said to vegetate under water; but what Noah wanted to learn was, not whether the topmost boughs were emerging from the flood, but whether the soil beneath was becoming free from water. Now, after a seven days' interval, when Noah again sent forth the dove, she did not return, "because the ground was dry." It is thus plain that the olive-tree had had plenty of time on some of the higher lands, while the flood was subsiding, to put forth new leaves. From this event the olive-leaf, thus sent by the regenerated earth to Noah in proof that she was ready to yield herself to him, has been ever since, among all mankind, the symbol of peace.

(13) The first day of the month.-It will be plain to any one studying the following table that this

The Earth dried.

It was thus very slowly that the earth returned to its normal state. The intervals of seven days between the sending forth of the birds prove that the division of time into weeks was fully established, and also suggests that religious observances were connected with it.

The covering of the ark.-The word is elsewhere used of the covering of skins for the Tabernacle (Exod. xxvi. 14; Num. iv. 25), and it has probably a similar meaning here. To have removed the solid framework of the roof would have been a very laborious task, and still more so to have broken up the roof itself. But as the asphalte employed for filling up the interstices between the beams in the hulk of the ark would have been difficult to manage for the roof, it was apparently protected from the rain by a covering, probably of skins sewn together.

No one can read the narrative without noticing that Noah is not only described as shut up within the ark, but as having very slight means of observing what was going on around. Had there been a deck, Noah would have known exactly the state of the flood, whereas, peeping only through the zohar, he seems to have been able to see but little, possibly because his sight was obstructed by the overhanging eaves of the roof. Thus the freshly-plucked olive-leaf was like a revelation to him. But when these skins were taken off, there were numerous apertures through which he could obtain an uninterrupted view, and he " 'looked, and, behold, the face of the adâmâh was dry."

Noah Leaveth the Ark. abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth. (18) And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him: (19) every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their 1kinds, went forth out of the ark.

(20) And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

(14) In the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month.-That is, fifty-seven days after Noah removed the covering, and a year and eleven days after the flood began. The word rendered "dried" at the end of this verse is different from that translated "dried up" and "dry" in verse 13, and marks a further stage in the process. It should be translated, was thoroughly dry.

There is in this year and eleven days a curious fact. It is reasonably certain that thirty days were reckoned to a month. But as a matter of fact, twelve lunar months do not make 360 days, but only about 354. Probably, therefore, the day of the new moon was often twice counted, as the last of the old month and the first of the new. But if to these 354 days we add 11, that is, from the 17th to the 27th of the second month, the result is exactly a full solar year of 365 days.

(15-19) Go forth. -At the end of exactly a solar year, thus curiously rectified, Noah, his family, and all the animals belonging to the Noachian world-circle are to leave the ark. The vast extent of the flood, and the total destruction of all that had existed before, is indicated by the repetition of the primeval command, in chap. i. 22, "to be fruitful and multiply upon the earth.” Whatever the flood may have been with respect to the whole globe, it was to Noah and his race absolutely a new beginning of things.

(20) Noah builded an altar unto the Lord (Jehovah).-The account of this sacrificial act is said to have been an interpolation of the Jehovist. Really it forms an integral portion of the numerous traditions of the flood. Thus in the Chaldean Genesis, after the sending forth of a dove, a swallow, and a raven, we read (p. 280):

"I sent them forth to the four winds; I sacrificed a sacrifice; I built an altar on the peak of the mountain.”

This extreme antiquity of sections ascribed to the Jehovist, and supposed to be an after-thought, is seriously detrimental to the whole theory.

One result of the flood was to sweep away all traces of the earthly paradise and of the subsequent abode of Adam; and it is probable also that Noah was removed far away from his previous home by the floating of the ark. Thus to him and his family it was a new earth, with no holy places, no spots hallowed by the past history of man. He therefore determines to consecrate the earth to Jehovah, who had been the object of the worship of his family since the days of Enos, and therefore builds an altar, the first mentioned in the Bible. By so doing he provided for future generations a central spot and sanctuary, round which their religious ideas would group themselves. The animals offered were probably the seventh of all clean kinds (see Note on